According to sources, Zardari continued consultations with his party leaders on Wednesday and also met US officials.

Sources also said that the US is working on a formula under which the PPP would form a government with a coalition of smaller parties such as the six-party religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the Muttehida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a Pashtun sub-nationalist party, and the Awami National Party (ANP), as well as independents and moderate leaders from tribal areas, Syed Saleem Shahzad wrote in the Asia Times Online. The PPP of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has emerged as the largest party but will need to ally with other parties to form a new government.